Dominican's cross country team wins its first state title

Natchitoches -- After all of these years, Dominican still lacks a nickname.

Maybe the school should try "Wolf Pack."

That was the mindset used Monday to capture the school's first cross country championship.

"We knew we had to work together as a team, " said senior Sarah Carr, whose fourth-place Class 5A finish led four Dominican runners in the Top 10. "We worked together all fall, and today it came through for us. This feels wonderful."

While Dominican was celebrating its team title, three St. Tammany runners were on the individual victory stand.

Fontainebleau junior Nicole Durham followed Mandeville senior Angelica Dickson most of the race before passing her with about 150 yards left. Durham then pulled away to win comfortably to repeat as state champion in 18 minutes, 42.23 seconds. St. Scholastica sophomore Carley Boyce was third.

Durham's efforts helped Fontainebleau finish second to Dominican for team honors. Mandeville was third.

"We've pushed each other all year, " said Durham, who finished second to Dickson in last week's Metro Championships. "I was trying to beat my own time today, but I knew that if I let Angie set the pace, I would be right where I wanted at the end.

"This one was definitely tougher than last year."

Dickson said she would like to have won but was grateful for how Durham and Boyce aided her in getting better.

"I'd been a swimmer until last year before I took up running, " she said. "I didn't know if I would be any good at it, but now I'm being recruited, which has me so excited. I felt like I was running with my family out there today."

Dominican had finished second to St. Joseph's last year and had been in the top five for the previous seven years. But this group, Coach Sherri Thompson said, had the work ethic to win it all.

"We told them coming in this was going to take a team effort, " she said. "It wasn't going to be just one or two people doing their best, we needed all seven to run well.

"This was a tough day to run with all of the wind and humidity, but when you train in south Louisiana, you're used to it. That let the girls just go for broke, and it paid off."